Friday, 6 January 2012

Lal & Mike Waterson

The Scarecrow (1972)

The Waterson's are arguably the first family of English folk music. Their music, rooted in the North Yorkshire mists, soil and sea, has had an enormous influence on so many other artists of the folk revival that the landscape of English folk would have been utterly different without them. Together, the core of the family, siblings Mike, Lal and Norma (later along with Norma's husband, the legendary Martin Carthy), they made some simply fabulous records that are a must for all fans of trad. folk song. The group took a brief hiatus in the early 70's and one of the fruits of this break was the beautiful album, Bright Phoebus (1972), written and performed by Mike and Lal. This was where we first glimpsed the haunting originality of their own songs, as you can hear on 'The Scarecrow' and, below, on 'Fine Horseman'. Please explore. Incredibly, I believe the album remains unavailable, which is a travesty. Sadly, Mike died last year, following Lal into music heaven.